We have entered a new era of information technology, an era where the clouds are moist, the data is obese and incontinent, and the threats are advanced, persistent, and the biggest ever. Of course with all the paradigm-shifting, next generation, FUD vs. ROI marketing, its important to remember that sometimes we need to balance innovation against misunderstood expectations, vendor double-speak, and relentless enterprise sales guys.

Because contrary to the barrage of marketing, these technologies won’t make you rich, teach you how to invest in real-estate, help you lose weight or grow a full head of hair, it won’t make you attractive to the opposite sex, nor will it solve all your problems, in some cases they can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your operating environment but it requires proper planning, expectation setting and careful deployment…and on that note, I give you the top 10 most overhyped technology terms over the last decade.

Given the media hype around the Conficker worm (and now Gumblar), and the constant barrage of alarming disclosure announcements, I thought it would be a good time to take a calmer look at some of the security myths, misconceptions and mistruths that plague the industry.

Many of these cyber security myths have been around for close to a decade. They have driven marketing campaigns and have sold a lot of traditional newspapers. But for the most part these threats have proven much less dangerous than ballyhooed. Worse, they distract us from addressing the routine problems that lead to a more secure global IT environment. Until we can address every day vulnerabilities threats, how can we justify focusing on exotic edge cases? (more…)